PUNE-BASED engineering company Alfa Laval has entered into a technological collaboration with two foreign partners to tap the evolving market for gasohol.

The Managing Director, Mr Satish Tandon, said the company recently tied up with Katzen Inc of the US for vapour-phase molecular sieve technology for the production of anhydrous alcohol.

The company had also tied up with Cemcorp of Canada for advanced distillation technology for the production of high-quality potable alcohol directly from the wash. It had already bagged a Rs 2-crore order for the same and was implementing it at the Shaw Wallace plant in Aurangabad, he said.

``The two tie-ups mean that the company can offer its customers a flexible, multi-product plant with a blend of both these technologies to maximise their production and efficiencies,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the company has been given the global manufacturing unit status by its principals in Sweden and is significantly stepping up exports to them from the level of Rs 30 crore to Rs 80 crore this year. Simultaneously, new markets are being tapped in East Africa, Thailand and Japan where the principals would help in marketing, he added.

The company was also stepping up its focus on life sciences with plans for a global reach, Mr Tandon said.

It has already sold its plant in Algiers and Qatar and is now in the process of setting up one for a client in Bangladesh.

The company made an income of Rs 10-15 crore annually out of this business, but expected to see this increase substantially to Rs 25-30 crore in two years by which time major research projects would take off from pharma majors, he said.

Alfa Laval manufactures a range of engineering products for the biotechnology industry including sterile tanks for transfer, vibro mixers, purified water generators and distribution systems and downstream processing separation and filtration systems. It recently supplied a Rs 19-crore enzyme production plant for Biocon India in Bangalore.